


Pedal to the Floor

by phillipa_gordon



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Barista Stiles Stilinski, Bus, Bus AU, Bus Driver Derek, Derek is a Failwolf, Dorks in Love, Fluff, Getting Together, Humor, Laura ships it, M/M, Meet-Cute, Mutual Pining, Oblivious, Pining, Public Transportation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-05
Updated: 2016-07-05
Packaged: 2018-07-21 17:10:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,699
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7396279
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phillipa_gordon/pseuds/phillipa_gordon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stiles' brain grinds to a halt.</p><p>His driver is definitely not middle aged. His bus driver is hot. Like, really hot. Like burning.</p><p>He also looks a bit like a serial killer at the moment, what with his impressive eyebrows being drawn into a scowl, but still. Actually, that expression kind of doesn’t look as terrible on him as it should. He’s got cheekbones and stubble and eyes and Stiles is in love. Totally in love. This guy is gorgeous and Stiles could go swimming in those incredible eyes. He opens his mouth, determined to be smooth, but instead what comes out is:</p><p>‘I’m not usually this wet.’</p><p>OR</p><p>The public transport/coffee shop AU in which Stiles pines, Laura meddles and Derek has no idea what his eyebrows are doing</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pedal to the Floor

**Author's Note:**

> Apologies:  
> -My bus driver on the way to Uni the other day had very Derek-Hale-esque eyebrows. It was all downhill from there.  
> -This entire fic is just blatant wish fulfilment of all my favourite tropes.  
> -Overuse of italics.  
> I’m so sorry

‘Lydia…’ he whines, ‘It’s too early in the morning for this.’

 _‘You should have thought about that before you took the job.’_ She sounds supremely unconcerned.

‘But it’s _raining_ ,’ he mutters. ‘It’s not supposed to rain in summer.’

_‘Stiles, get out of your house now. If you want money you have to work for it. I’m doing you a favour by even calling you to get you out of bed.’_

‘I’ll probably call you an angel later, but right now, I resent your perfection. _So much_.’

Lydia just scoffs, and he can practically _hear_ her tossing her hair all the way from MIT. ‘ _Get your ass out of bed. Tell me if anyone is dumb enough to give you their number; I’ll tell you if they’re worth your time. Anyway, I need to go and terrify some math freshmen. Don’t die of coffee fumes._ ’ She hangs up.

Stiles just groans, rolls over, and almost falls out of bed.

This is not his day.

=#=#=#=#=#=#=

Apparently, ‘raining’ had been an understatement. It is absolutely pouring by the time Stiles has finished breakfast, and he amuses himself by contemplating phoning in to say he’s either flooded in or drowning. His boss was kind of scary in the interview though, so he’d better not risk it. The bus stop is deserted when he gets there, which he counts as a win because that means he can play air drums without anyone silently judging him.

…except that when he gets into the music, he _really_ gets into the music. So much so that he doesn’t notice the bus pulling up at the stop and the doors opening until a loud horn jolts him out of his music-induced insanity. He jumps, flails, and promptly steps into a puddle that is apparently a lot deeper than it looked. Swearing, he stumbles up the step onto the bus ready to apologise to the fatherly, middle aged driver for not noticing the bus had stop—

His brain grinds to a halt.

His driver is definitely _not_ middle aged. His bus driver is hot. Like, _really_ hot. Like burning.

He also looks a bit like a serial killer at the moment, what with his impressive eyebrows being drawn into a scowl, but _still_. Actually, that expression kind of doesn’t look as terrible on him as it should. He’s got cheekbones and stubble and _eyes_ and Stiles is in love. Totally in love. This guy is gorgeous and Stiles could go _swimming_ in those incredible eyes. He opens his mouth, determined to be smooth, but instead what comes out is:

‘I’m not usually this wet.’

Eyebrows The Magnificent (E.T.M. for short) just draws his legendary eyebrows closer together. Stiles may or may not consider just stepping back off the bus and walking the five miles to work, but before he can go and drown himself in a puddle, E.T.M. closes the bus doors and pulls out, leaving Stiles to scramble into the nearest empty seat.

Stiles is not one to give up easily, though. He could still save this conversation. He has to speak up a bit so the roar of the bus doesn’t completely drown him out. ‘Soooo…you new around here? ‘Cos I don’t think I’ve seen you before?’ He hopes his winning smile is hiding his inner cringe, because _did he really just use ‘do you come here often?’?!_ He thought he’d developed game since becoming friends with Lydia, but _nope_. He can feel the heat rising in his face.

E.T.M. casts him an odd glance in the rear-view mirror, and then grunts out a ‘No,’ which, _rude_. But seeing as Stiles has probably just caught him off guard, he’s going to overlook it, just this once.

‘Oh, well maybe I just haven’t seen you. I’m pretty sure I would have remembered—‘ _Shut up, Stiles!_ ‘—uh, but anyway, that must mean you didn’t go to Beacon Hills High, or maybe you were a few years ahead of me? And I haven’t seen you up at the Police department either, which is probably a good thing. My dad’s the Sheriff, you know, so I’ve ended up with more knowledge of the local criminals than your average reasonably-law-abiding-20-year-old. Though law-abiding is kinda relative, and I swear half the time it’s not even my fault when shit happens!’

E.T.M.’s eyebrows have drawn so close together they’re in danger of joining in the middle. Stiles decides to shut up. E.M.T. stays silent, shakes his head a couple of times as though to clear his ears of water, and turns away to focus (rather too insistently) on the road.

If Stiles spends the rest bus ride silently admiring E.T.M.’s biceps, while simultaneously stewing in his own embarrassment, only the lady with the blue rinse sitting across from him can bear witness.

=#=#=#=#=#=#=

Work turns out to be not as bad as he had expected. Weirdly enough, he seems to enjoy caffeinating the local community, although he still can’t roll out of bed with anything resembling dignity. Laura, his boss, laughs at him when he turns up on his third day with a massive bruise on his arm from where he accidentally rolled out of bed onto one of his enormous Uni textbooks. Speaking of Laura: somehow she is simultaneously way cooler and way scarier than she seemed in the interview. Stiles hopes that she and Lydia never meet, as they have a scarily similar ‘attractive but deadly’ aura about them that he is torn between admiring and being terrified of. He wouldn’t even dream of being attracted to Laura, despite her being subjectively gorgeous; apparently she has a ‘scary big brother who will beat you to a pulp if you even try’, which she seems to think is cute.

Like he said: Terrifying.

But hey, Laura’s cool, when she’s not being so intimidating that he wants to run and hide, and he’s really getting into this whole barista thing. Everything’s going pretty well.

…except for Eyebrows The Magnificent.

‘…and he’s just so ridiculously hot, I’m talking underwear model hot. The surface of the sun would be jealous. Actually, you could totally harness his hotness and use it as an energy source, or maybe you could capture the energy from all the arousal of everyone else looking at him. That should be a thing! What’s a catchy name for that?’

Laura doesn’t look at him like he’s grown another head like most people would, but she does snort so violently that an old woman sitting in the corner of the café gives her a scandalised look. ‘I believe that’s called objectification,’ she sniggers. ‘Would you have him just sit in a room all day and people come in and ogle him to charge their laptops? Maybe you should suggest this to him; he might like the idea of having something to do other than ride around on buses all day.’

Stiles considers. ‘Yeah, though I guess the pay would have to be better than a bus drivers’ wage. He doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who’d put up with the whole objectification thing for nothing.’

Laura pierces him with a piercing glare, staring into his soul. Piercingly.

Did he mention she’s kinda scary?

‘Stiles, how did you fail to mention that the guy you’re crushing on is the _driver_?’

Stiles in nonplussed. ‘Uhh…sorry? It kinda isn’t really that impo—‘ He’s cut off by Laura bursting into fits of laughter so raucous that she knocks all of the stacks of paper cups off the counter. She doesn’t seem to care; she clutching at her sides and wheezing with mirth.

‘Uhh…okaaaay. I think I’m missing something here…?’

‘Oh honey,’ she splutters, still doubled over, ‘You have no idea!’

Before he can ask her what that’s all about, there’s a rush of soccer moms in search of caffeine, and by the time they’re free to talk again, he’s put the whole thing down to Laura’s general weirdness.

=#=#=#=#=#=

So, Stiles may have been joking in his own head about being in love with E.T.M. on that first day, but the thing is…it’s totally not a joke any more. Sure, the guy’s a bit grumpy looking, but that doesn’t stop him from being ridiculously, inhumanly gorgeous. And Stiles wasn’t banking on him actually being a genuinely sweet human being.

Stiles just can’t cope with watching him be so adorable. It’s too much, for someone to be that good looking _and_ be a decent human. There should be some kind law of nature or something, and yet despite his grumpy face, E.T.M. is actually a squishy fluff-ball of nice.

Like, he always waits until the old people have sat down before he moves off, so they don’t fall over.

Like, he always stops before the official bus stop in Station Street so that the mum with three kids doesn’t have to walk as far (this one seems to be a regular thing, like they pre-organised it and have fallen into a routine. Stiles swoons in a very manly fashion every time it happens.)

Like, sometimes if Stiles catches the bus back home during school time, he sees the kids giving E.T.M. drawings of him (most of them prominently featuring his eyebrows) and E.T.M. _actually smiles_ and thanks them. Some of them high five him as they leave the bus and it’s just _too freaking adorable_.

Like, today, when Stiles is running late and is sure he’s going to miss the bus, but skids to a halt at the bus stop, to find that E.T.M. has actually _already stopped the bus and is waiting for him._

Be still his beating heart.

=#=#=#=#=#=

‘Laura! E.T.M. acknowledged my existence! He _waited_ for me! But I was too exhausted from running there to actually say anything and it was _so embarrassing_ because he’s ripped as fuck, and I was just wheezing like and asthmatic dog and _now he thinks I’m a loser!’_

‘I’m sure he finds it endearing, with your Bambi eyes and all,’ Laura says wickedly. ‘Have you asked what his name is yet? His actual name, not your weird-ass acronym, which you still haven’t told me what it stands for, by the way.’

‘I don’t know what his name is yet, but I heard a kid call him something ending with k. Nick, maybe? Though he doesn’t really look like a Nick. So for now he’s just E.T.M., though he’s not really “just” anything, he’s way too hot for that.’

‘What the hell does E.T.M. even stand for?!’

Stiles shuffles his feet a little bit before replying. He knows she’s going to tease the ever-living heck out of him, but whatever. ‘It stands for “Eyebrows The Magnificent”, and it’s not even an exaggeration.’

Laura cackles. ‘You based a nickname for him on his _eyebrows?!_ This is gold! Oh boy, I _knew_ hiring you was a good idea!’

‘I’m not even joking, though! And it’s not just his eyebrows either. He’s got a face carved by angels, and his _eyes_ , I literally can’t even, they’re just so…what colour even are they?! And when those kids get on the bus he just _smiles_ at them and his eyes crinkle up and he has these really cute teeth and it’s just like he’s their big brother or something, but the kind of big brother that helps them with their homework and beats the shit out of anyone who messes with them. Just, gah, I can’t even. He’s literal perfection.’

Laura’s smile has become progressively more devious as Stiles has continued his rant, and by the time he finishes, she’s practically wolfish.

That look can’t mean anything good.

Stiles sighs. ‘Please don’t laugh at me and tell me I’m an idiot. I know that much already, I just don’t need to be reminded of my apparent kink for people who are _way_ out of my league. He’s probably not even into guys.’

‘Oh, I wouldn’t say that,’ Laura remarks absently, adjusting the nozzle of the milk frother.

And… _what?!_

‘Wait, have you _spoken_ to him?! Oh god, what did you say?! What did _he_ say?! Is that why he stopped the bus, was he giving me pity for my pathetic unrequited crush?! Oh _god_.’

‘I didn’t say I spoke to him! Where did you get that idea?’ She’s all innocent eyes and charm and for a moment Stiles is _almost_ convinced. Then he remembers that this is Laura, and she is _never_ innocent.

‘Oh _god_. I would kill you, but you could probably come back from the dead to haunt me, and it’s not like I would have had a chance anyway. But _really_?! You couldn’t have let me live on in the delusion for just a little while?’

Laura rolls her eyes. ‘Stiles, if you were _actually listening_ you would have heard me say that he might have more than a passing interest in guys! But hey, if you want to rant at me for no reason, I won’t tell you anything else he said.’

‘HA! I knew you spoke to him! Evil, evil human! Why do you torture me so?!’

‘Nope, that’s it, I’m not giving any details! You two can work your way out of this ridiculous pining thing all by yourselves, if you’re going to be this stupid.’ She tosses her hair in an almost Lydia-like fashion. ‘Now, _if_ you’ll excuse me, I need to call my brother.’ She stalks off to the backroom.

It’s only about 3 minutes later that it finally registers what she was actually saying.

E.T.M. might actually be gay?!

Say _whaaaaat??!!_

‘Whaaaaaat?!!!!’ He says out loud to the empty room. The coffee machine just wheezes in incredulous agreement.

=#=#=#=#=#=

Armed with the knowledge that E.T.M. might still be out of his league, but at least he _bats for the same team_ , Stiles summons up all the courage he can muster when he gets on the bus the next day. He’s going to try and find out E.T.M.’s actual name, and if he dies (most likely of embarrassment) trying, so be it.

‘So, erm….I’ve been thinking…’ E.T.M. quirks an eyebrow, and if Stiles wasn’t as nervous as he is he would totally sass him right back. Jerk. ‘Well, I’ve been catching this bus like almost every day for at least a month, and it’s kind of weird that I don’t know your name. Like, I see you every day, and it just seems rude that I have to refer to you as “the bus driver” or “E.T.M.” or whatever whenever I talk about you or refer to you in my head…’ He trails off as his brain catches up with his mouth and _what did he just say?!?!?!_ Seriously, fuck his life.

E.T.M.’s eyebrows are doing a complicated dance on his forehead, probably trying to decide whether he should throw Stiles off the bus or phone the police. Or maybe both. Actually, he’s probably trying to figure out where that damned acronym came from, and if Stiles is certifiably insane for coming up with it. This was all a dumb idea, Stiles _knows_ how incapable of interacting normally with hot people he is; he should have just stuck with pining. He’s so distracted berating himself over what a complete and utter _moron_ he is that it takes him a good three seconds to realise that E.T.M. just said something.

‘Sorry?’

‘Derek.’

‘Who? Wait, what?’

‘Derek. Is my. Name.’ E.T.M. grits out, looking like the words cause him physical pain and avoiding Stiles’ eyes.

‘Oh. Um, nice name.’ _Hot name, actually._

Derek finally looks at him. ‘And yours?’

‘Oh, um, it’s Stiles. Stiles Stilinski.’

Derek frowns. ‘Who names their—‘

‘I know, it’s a really frickin’ weird name, but you should see my _actual_ name. I couldn’t even spell it properly until I was 10.’

Stiles thinks he sees the corner of Derek’s mouth twitch, just a little. He most certainly _does not swoon_. But now that Derek is actually talking to him, he has to keep the momentum going. ‘So…how long have you been driving buses for?’ Admittedly not the greatest conversation starter ever, but he’s desperate.

‘Three and a half years,’ He pauses for a moment, then continues a little hesitantly, ‘Been driving since I came back to Beacon Hills.’

‘I _knew_ you must be from around here, but I didn’t recognise you! And, trust me, I recognise most people around here, but if you left before, what, 2005, I probably wouldn’t remember you. Were you at BHHS?’

‘Yes.’

Wow, really not much of a talker. Oh well, Stiles can do the talking, because if there’s one thing Stiles can do, it’s talk. ‘Awesome! So was I. I finished there, what, three years ago? And let me tell you, as much fun as it was pranking Finstock and running all over playing lacrosse, I do not miss it one bit. Though actually, I do miss my friends a bit, though my buddy Scott’s still in Beacon Hills, so that’s alright. But my other friend Lydia Martin? Complete goddess, by the way. But anyway, yeah, she moved over to study at MIT, and she’s a genius, and we still get to Skype, but it’s just not the same as face to face, y’know?’

Derek’s voice sounds a bit weird (it must just be the engine noise interfering with Stiles’ hearing or something) when he says, ‘She your girlfriend?’

Stiles snorts. ‘Ha, noooo. I had a massive crush on her in third grade, but I got over that, and then I figured out I was into guys. Well, actually, I’m into girls too, but it’s mostly guys that catch my interest these day.’ _Seamless. He’s definitely not going to notice that I casually dropped that hint. Can I possibly be any more obvious?!_

They’ve arrived at the café. Stiles is disappointed that he has to get off, but seriously, he just sustained an entire conversation with _Derek the Beautiful_ and he’s not going to let anything spoil his mood.

‘Until next time!’ He grins at Derek as he steps off the bus, nearly toppling over backwards in his attempt to keep his eyes on Derek the entire time. Derek just rolls his eyes, and Stiles might be imagining it, but the gesture seems almost _fond_.

He stands for way too long watching the bus drive away.

=#=#=#=#=#=

‘Stiles….Stiles….Stiles! Are you even listening to me?!’

‘Huhhhh?’ Stiles is dragged from his Derek-induced-cloud-nine.

‘I just asked who was going to move all the cups from the back room, and you said, and I quote: “Derek McDreamy-Eyes”. I’m assuming this means you’ve finally spoken to my brother.’

‘Yeah, I finally got his name,’ Stiles grins as he picks up a large crate of crockery, ‘and he actually talked to—wait—your WHAT?!’ Stiles abruptly crashes out of dreamland because _oh my god, did Laura just say BROTHER?!?!_ His fingers slip on the crate, but Laura catches the bottom of it before it can hit the floor.

Laura is grinning at him, and Stiles swears she has never looked more dangerous. ‘Oh yes! Derek is my little brother. Though I don’t know how we managed to be related, what with my unbridled charisma and his complete lack of social skills, but yes. I must say, it’s been tremendous fun teasing the two of you.’ She pulls her eyebrows together in a frown that is obviously supposed to be Derek. ‘ _No, Laura, I can’t talk to the cute guy on the bus, because I’m a grumpy pile of manpain and angst, and he’s probably not even single,’_ she mimics, before switching to a wide eyed swoon that Stiles supposes is him, ‘ _But Laura, he’s just so hot and adorable and I want to have adopted babies with him and do you think he’d be the little spoon or the big spoon?!’_ She snorts. ‘I hope you appreciate how much pining I’ve had to put up with over the last month.’

Stiles is, for once in his life, speechless. He just stands there gaping at her while she grins at him evilly, until her phone rings and she looks away.

‘Oh would you look at that, it’s lover boy!’ she cackles, holding the phone up so Stiles can read ‘Glarek xoxo’ on the screen. He makes a lunge for it, but she steps neatly out of the way and takes his arms in a surprisingly strong grip with one hand, picking up the call at the same time. ‘Hey there Der-bear, how fares your epic romance with public transportation?’

Stiles can’t make out the words at the other end of the conversation, but Laura is busy winking at him and waggling her eyebrows along with whatever Derek is saying. ‘Oh, _Stiles Stilinski_ , you say? Well now, _there’s_ a coincidence! You know how I’ve been telling you about that new barista I hired, the one I wanted to set you up with so you could get over cute bus guy? Well…it turns out they might just be the same person! Imagine that! What are the odds?!’ Stiles can feel his face turning beet red as she speaks. This is _mortifying_.

There seems to be a beat of silence on the other end of the phone, then ‘ _LAURA!?!?!?_ ’ explodes from the speaker so loudly that even Stiles can hear it. Even in his state of death by embarrassment, he can’t quite supress a snort when Laura jerks the phone away from her ear, scowling.

‘ _Manners_ , baby bro. You’re going to have to learn them at some point if you’re going to woo Stiles.’ Stiles somehow snorts, flails and trips over a mop all at the same time. ‘…or not. Nevermind. Anyway, maybe you should drop by when you’ve finished your shift?’ She pauses, ‘No, he’ll be done by then, don’t worry.’ She winks at Stiles where he’s still lying on the floor, ‘See you at three then.’ She hangs up.

‘You. Are. Evil!’ Stiles accuses her, trying to swipe her with the mop. She just cackles and dances out of the way.

‘I take it that means you’ll be staying until three, then?’

He just glares at her. Stupid, evil coffee shop bosses with hot siblings.

=#=#=#=#=#=

The bell over the door tinkles as it’s thrown open to reveal a very angry looking Derek. He stomps (almost like a petulant toddler, and _oh god, he must be in deep if he finds that adorable rather than annoying_ ) up to the counter and glares at Laura, before noticing Stiles where he’s hiding behind the coffee machine.

_Well, this is awkward._

‘Uhhhhh….so. Um….good to see you off the bus.’ Can Stiles just disappear now, please?! Like, immediately. He has no game and this is excruciating.

Derek looks confused for a moment, shuffles his feet, and shyly says, ‘Hey.’ He avoids eye contact as a blush spreads up the back of his neck. Stiles can feel a blush creeping up his own cheeks, and turns away to unnecessarily sort sugar sachets. Laura crows at him, which seems to be enough to snap Derek back to scowling mode.

‘Laura,’ he growls, but she cuts him off.

‘This is ridiculous, Der! One of you ask the other out, put me out of my misery!’ When they continue to avoid each other’s eyes, she snaps ‘Do I have to do everything myself!’ She grabs Stiles firmly by the arm and manhandles him out from behind the counter, dragging him over to a booth by the wall. After dumping him unceremoniously on one side, she points a finger at him sternly, saying ‘STAY!’ in a tone of voice that Stiles doesn’t dare disobey. She then walks across and grabs Derek, forcing him into the other side of the booth. ‘Neither of you are moving for the next hour. You’re going to sit here and get to know each other and hopefully confess to mutually crushing on each other. Capiche?’

Derek is giving her his best bitch face, which Stiles would honestly find hilarious if the whole situation wasn’t so awkward. Laura seems immune to it though. She just grins wolfishly again, and flounces off, back to the counter. Stiles watches her go in disbelief, before turning back to Derek with an apology already half formed on the tip of his tongue.

They both speak at the same time.

‘I’m so sorr—‘

‘I’d like to tak—‘

Ergh, can this possibly be any more awkward?! He gestures for Derek to continue, but Derek just opens and shuts his mouth a couple of times, glaring at the table. Eventually, he just shakes his head and says ‘No, you go first.’

‘Oookay…well, I just wanted to say I’m so sorry if I’ve made you uncomfortable, and I’m sorry that I didn’t realise you were Laura’s brother so I kinda just passed on the hell she was giving me onto you and—‘

‘You don’t need to apologise,’ Derek interrupts, ‘and you didn’t make me uncomfortable. I mean…’ he looks a little frustrated at trying to find words, and Stiles watches him wringing his hands uncomfortably, ‘You don’t. And I’d like to take you out to dinner. If that’s alright with you.’

Stiles gapes at him for a moment, then says, ‘Yes! All the yes! Please, I would love to—‘ Hopefully Derek doesn’t mind clingy and overeager, because if he does, Stiles has just royally screwed up his chances.

But Derek’s face has split into a wide, shy smile, and _oh god_ that’s an incredible look on him. Stiles can’t help but smile goofily back, just as Laura reappears at the table with two hot chocolates.

‘Excellent, you’re gazing soulfully at each other. I assume this means you’ve made progress?’

‘Yeah,’ says Stiles absently, unwilling to tear his eyes away from Derek’s. Laura laughs and places their drinks on the table, then reaches over to ruffle Derek’s hair. He wrinkles his nose at her, but the smile doesn’t disappear from off his face.

Stiles could get used to this.

=#=#=#=#=#=

_Epilogue:_

‘He shoots… HE SCORES!’ Stiles throws up his hands in triumph as the ball of paper narrowly misses the takeaway cup lids and bounces into the garbage. He turns to Derek, who is lounging in a booth near the window with Laura. Derek just raises an eyebrow at him, to which Stiles responds maturely. By sticking his tongue out. Derek snorts in a way that really should be unattractive, but which Stiles still finds oddly endearing.

‘Derek, are you even listening?!’ There’s no real heat in Laura’s voice. Derek turns to her, looking blank. She heaves a put-upon sigh, but can’t quite hide the grin creeping across her face. ‘You two are ridiculous. I thought it couldn’t possibly get worse than when you were pining for each other, but _nope_. I can practically see the heart eyes.’

‘You’re just jealous,’ sniffs Stiles, sidling over to Derek to snake an arm around his shoulders, ‘And who wouldn’t be! Look at my man!’ He bats his eyelashes aggressively. If there is such a thing as aggressive eyelash batting. ‘We’d better get going though. We’re having dinner with Dad tonight. Don’t want into invoke parental wrath for tardiness.’

‘Rubbish! Your Dad loves Derek, ever since that time he cooked that roast chicken last Christmas and made his amazing baked potatoes with that homemade seasoning. I’m pretty sure he’s happy that he can rely on Derek to keep you well fed now that you’ve moved in together.’ Laura chuckles. ‘No pressure, but I think he’s hearing wedding bells.’

Stiles blushes, but Derek just grins. ‘I wouldn’t object to that.’

Stiles starts, and stares at his boyfriend, who just blinks innocently back at him. ‘Was that a proposal?! Cos I’ve gotta say, I object! I want to be wooed, get in on that romance and shit.’ He pauses, then adds:

‘Do you think we could have a bus as our wedding car?’

Derek’s smile has never looked more beautiful.


End file.
